Organisers of this year’s Big Cheese have been criticised for the way free fairground tickets for families with disabled children have been allocated.
Each year Caerphilly County Borough Council hands out 400 free tickets to families with disabled children so they can enjoy the funfair on the Friday before it opens to the general public.
For this year’s event the council has opted to distribute the tickets through a variety of support groups instead of parents requesting them.
One of the families affected by the change is the Peppers from Abertridwr.
Ceri Pepper, is a 52-year-old full-time mother to twins Charlotte and Thomas, 15, as well as the guardian of six-year-old niece Jade, who suffers from ataxia. Thomas has autism and Asperger’s Syndrome.
Jade’s two sisters Giorgia, 11, and Elise, 7, have ataxia and petit mal respectively and live with Ceri’s sister Gail Williams in Newport. Jade’s brother John-Paul, 9, who also has ataxia, lives with Ceri’s brother.
The family have been going to the Big Cheese Festival in Caerphilly for the last 12 years and see it as a means for the children to spend quality time together.
Ceri said: “It’s not just about going on the shows. They meet the Mayor and they spend time with all their friends. My daughter Charlotte also gets to spend time with friends who also have a sibling with special needs.
“I feel like my children have lost out for simply not being part of a select support group. Every one of the children have been born in Caerphilly, so why should they miss out because they’re not part of a group?
“It’s a special weekend for the children and the family. I feel the council has let my children down.
“We contacted councillor John Roberts, who did his best and got us half-price tickets. The point though is not half-price tickets, it’s about spending quality time together.”
In a statement, Caerphilly County Borough Council said: “We understand parents with children who have special needs welcome the opportunity to attend for an hour when the fair is only open to them. We have never in the last fifteen years invited more than 400 families to attend for this hour.
“This year we have changed the way the invitations have been sent and worked with local voluntary groups who have invited different families to benefit from this opportunity. This change has come about because unfortunately some individuals did abuse the invitation and sell on the wristbands and these were used by able bodied children. This resulted in a high risk environment during this hour, where we saw people pushing and jostling to get onto the rides.
“We also understand for some families have enjoyed successive years of attending and in changing our methods of distribution they have not received tickets this year and this is disappointing for them. There are several thousand children in the county borough who could be eligible to receive tickets but the funfair area must be a safe environment during that period and this can only be achieved by controlling the number of tickets and how they are distributed.
I am disgusted at the way somepeople have been treated I feel for ceri n her family if some people' were abusing ur system of band s they are the ones who should be penalised not a ceri and her family I think surely u could issue this familywith bands .
These tickets are a gift, not an entitlement and the council are quite reasonable in seeking to maximise the benefit by distributing them as widely as possible. By offering tickets to different children each year then more children from the whole borough can share in the fun.
Is it possible for the Council to check the noise level from the Fair?.If this were a factory producing such intolerable noise levels it woud be shut down on Health and Safety. Could not the fair be relocated to Virginia Park next year, it is intolerablethat the rsidents of Nantgarw Road etc have to suffer this every year?.
I agree this is not an entitlement. I have never heard of this before and have never been able to go to the big cheese with my children, I have 2 children on the ASD spectrum. I was one of the familys selected and thoroughly enjoyed the day, I do feel for the family in the story, but maybe she should think of others too.
Ron James comments resonate throughout the town.
Can anyone give a clear and precise reason for this outragous event which takes over the town, private homes, and the rights of individuals to go about their normal daily activity?
Can anyone give an explination as to why the Caerphilly council use up the normal carbon footprint of a small nation, in three days?
Can anyone explain why it seems a good idea, year after year, for local towns people to put up with the noise pollution, anti-social behaviour, litter in the residential streets of the town left uncleaned, and the spending of a months Gwent police budget in three days to oversee the event?.
Lets hear it from those Councillors who have responsibilty for this `circus` rolling into town to take it over every year, and lets have a public debate on it before it happens all over again next year.
Let's have a public debate … so we can have an even better one next year!
Well said Clive.
Mark should know all about it, perhaps he can tell us why????
Where do Clive and Mark live?, not within earshot of the Big Noise I`m sure.
One off Mill Road one in Energlyn, so, in all fairness any expressions of support for this `Circus` rolling into town for three days are just a little bit ` empty`.
No-one can explain what it is all about, does anyone know, or is it a case of follow the leader until someone calls a halt to it on environmental grounds at least.